Heat away form baffles McKnight

McKnight partly blames traffic for arriving late at away matches

Guildford Heat head coach Chad McKnight says he cannot explain his side's dismal form on the road this season.

Heat are sixth in the BBL, 10 points behind leaders Sheffield Sharks who beat them 97-83 last weekend, and have won just one of their five away trips.

McKnight told BBC Surrey: "It's not been going too good for us on the road.

"We've been trying to pinpoint it. I don't know if it's been something we've been doing or not doing in practice, or what the reason is for it."

He added: "We went back to the drawing board this week and I switched the way training was. We've been finding it hard on the road so I tried to switch things up."

McKnight says he is considering changing the team's preparations for away games to try and turn their fortunes around.

"We're looking at the times we are leaving because we did show up to a few games a little bit late and when you're on the coach for five or six hours it does wear on your body," he said.

"If you only have half an hour or 45 minutes to warm up compared to the normal hour and a half that we have at home then things do slightly change, so we'll leave a little bit earlier and see if that will help out."

McKnight also hinted there could be an element of complacency causing problems away from home.

"I think the team got to the point where we were comfortable with what we were doing," he added.

"We were winning a lot of matches, we were near the top and it's easy to go into games expecting people to roll over and let you win the game.

"It's just about us relaxing and not taking care of what we need to take care of as a team and then letting the other team come on and do pretty much whatever they want and win the game."

Heat host bottom side Plymouth Raiders at the Spectrum on Saturday, tip-off 1500 GMT, but McKnight insists Heat will not underestimate them.

"They're low in the rankings but it's not a game you take for granted," he added.

"Even London Capitals are low on the list, and they were last year, but they beat us because they caught us sleeping.

"We have to come out and play hard no matter who we play and not give them any thoughts in their head that they'll be able to stay with us in the game."